Treating the Church Family (5:1-2)

Paul gives instructions on how to treat our church family.

• What does it mean to rebuke (v1)?
• How would one exhort (v1)?
• How should you treat your father (v1)?
• How should you treat a brother (v1)?
• How should you treat your mother(v2)?
• How should you treat a sister (v2)?
• What precautions should be taken to be with all purity(v2)?

Widows in Need (5:3-8)

This is a difficult passage, but seems to talk first about widows in need and then later about those enrolled in some more formal capacity.

• Does Paul make a distinction between widows and real widows (v3)?
• Who has the first responsibility to care for widows (v4)?
• Is not doing this good and acceptable (v4)?
• Freed from other responsibilities, what should a widow focus upon (v5)?
• How is living in pleasure being dead (v6)?
• Are these instructions just suggestions (v7)?
• How serious is not providing for your own(v8)?

Widows Taken Into the Number (5:9–16)

There is a lot we don’t know about this, but we see terms like “taken into the number”.

• Why a minimum age of sixty (v9)?
• What does it mean to “have been” the wife of one man(v9)?
• What examples of good works were given (v10)?
• Was washing someone’s feet an honored or menial task (v10)?
• Are we tempted to avoid some of the menial good we could do?
• How should she have followed every good work (v10)?
• Why were younger widows to be refused(v11)?
• How would they cast off their first faith (v12)?
• What seems to be the natural result of idleness (v13)?
• How should a wife manage a house (v14)?
• What results from failure to do these things (v14,15)?
• Why would Paul add a second reminder about caring for their own (v16)?

Honoring Elders (5:17-21)

Within the church family, Paul gives specific instructions relating to Elders.

• What does it mean to be worthy of double honor(v17)?
• Can Elders be paid (v17)?
• Does God sometimes give principles instead of specifics (v18)?
• How many witnesses are required for an accusation against an Elder (v19)?
• Are any exceptions given (v19)?
• Valid accusations require public rebuke, why (v20)?
• Are we tempted to show partiality(v21)

General Instructions (5:22-25)

• What did it mean to lay hands on (v22)?
• How would that cause us to share (v22)?
• What does the word wine mean in the Bible (v23)?
• Can good and bad sometimes be hidden (v24-25)?

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